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FLORENCE, Italy (AP) - A court hearing Amanda Knox's second appeals trial has accepted a request to run additional DNA tests on the presumed weapon in the murder of Meredith Kercher.

The judge has agreed to test one DNA trace not previously examined because it had been deemed too small. A court-ordered review in the first appeals trial discredited DNA evidence on the kitchen knife linked to Kercher.

The court also agreed to hear testimony from a jailed Mafioso who has accused his brother in the murder, but rejected most of the other defense requests for new testimony or evidence.

Italy's highest court in March ordered a new trial for Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, overturning their acquittals in Kercher's gruesome 2007.

The star defendant was absent at its opening Monday.

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